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PCC Page

The parochial church council (PCC) is the executive committee of Saint Mary Our Lady, Sidlesham. Legally the council is responsible for the financial affairs of St Mary's and the maintenance of its assets, such as the church and church hall, but the council also acts as a focus for church affairs in the parish.

PCCs were set by the Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1921 Act as a successor to the Vestry or Vestry Meetings, which had had their civil functions removed during the nineteenth century in numerous acts, concluding in 1894 with the establishment of civil parishes. The subsequent 1956 and 1969 Acts now govern the establishment and function of PCCs.

Members of St Mary's PCC are elected at the parish AGM. A list of the current members of St Mary's PCC can be found on the "Contact Us" page.

At St Mary's we have a PCC meeting
approximately every three months and it is usually held in the church.

Saturday, 14 November 2015

Parish Giving Scheme

Parishioners can donate to St Mary's by using the Parish Giving Scheme(PGS).

PGS is a direct-debit system originally developed by the Diocese of Gloucester to provide a professional, effective donation management system to support parishes in funding their mission and ministry. It reduces the burden of work on parish volunteers and provides a professional service to our donors. It enables:

the donor to sign up to inflationary increases to their gifts, overcoming static giving.

the parish to improve cash-flow by receiving the gift, together with gift aid accompanying the donation on the tenth of the month.

Chichester Diocese

The first parishes in the Chichester diocese started piloting the PGS in June 2012. It was given formal approval for a roll-out across Sussex by The Chichester Diocesan Board of Finance (DBF) in autumn 2012.

At the beginning of October 2015, £257,670 was remitted to local churches in our diocese through the PGS, including £49,774 of Gift Aid.

Cumulatively, about £5 million has been remitted to parishes since we introduced the scheme to this diocese, which includes well over about £1m of GiftAid reclaimed.

How the Scheme works

Donations can be made on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. They are collected by Direct Debit on the first day of the month. The gift plus any related Gift Aid is then passed on to the specified church by the tenth of the month. The donor can opt to commit in principle to increase their gift annually in line with inflation, and/or remain anonymous to their parish.

Donors receive an initial letter confirming their details and welcoming them to the scheme. All those who have requested to inflate their giving annually will then receive a letter one month before the anniversary of their first gift informing them of their soon to be inflated gift (with the option to vary it). The system uses the CARE database (a professional system used by many large Charities).

Parish Giving Scheme Limited has now been established as a charitable limited company, with participating dioceses as members of it. Existing donors migrated on 1st November 2014. The new Joint Venture structure and a grant from the Archbishops’ Council which has allowed systems work to improve the effectiveness of our processing and strengthening of management have removed the need for a “queue” – essentially, dioceses are now able to join the scheme at the time that is right for them.

Further details

For further details, email us via the Contact Us page, and select 'Giving' in the 'Organisation or Person' box, or simply talk to the treasurer, churchwarden or Fr Stephen.